Tourists, camera crew avoid injury when Mount Etna erupts

The eruptive activity of the Mount Etna's southeast volcanic crater is fiery red on Thursday. Mount Etna, Europe's largest active volcano, erupted for the second time in a month this week, spewing lava hundreds of feet into the air. At least 10 people injured, news reported.

By
Bob D’Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

A group of tourists and a television camera crew escaped serious injuries after Mount Etna in Italy erupted Thursday, CNN reported.

As Europe’s tallest active volcano, located on the island of Sicily, spewed steam and boiling hot rocks, a BBC camera crew and tourists sprinted to nearby vehicles and safely left the area.

Ten people were injured, but none seriously, the Italian news agency Ansa reported.

The explosion took place on the mountain side at an altitude of 9,500 feet near Nicolosi when lava touched the snow on the volcano's peak, Ansa reported, sparking a "phreatic explosion."

Rebecca Morelle, the BBC's global science correspondent, noted that “explosions like this have killed.”

"Running down a mountain pelted by rocks, dodging burning boulders and boiling steam — not an experience I ever ever want to repeat," she wrote on Twitter.

Morelle later posted a photo on Twitter of camerawoman Rachel Price holding up a jacket with a hole burned through it by a "lump of rock."

Andrea Kiss, a tourist who filmed footage of lava moving down the side of the volcano 30 minutes before the eruption, told CNN that she knew something had happened when "injured people appeared at the cable car station."

Running down a mountain pelted by rocks, dodging burning boulders and boiling steam - not an experience I ever ever want to repeat (8)